Gunslinger: The Remarkable, Improbable, Iconic Life of Brett Favre

Gunslinger tells Brett Favre's full, definitive story for the first time, drawing on more than 500 interviews, including many from the people closest to Favre. Jeff Pearlman charts Favre's journey, from his rough rural childhood and lackluster high school football career to landing the last roster spot at Southern Mississippi to a late-night car accident that nearly took his life. Favre clawed back, getting drafted into the NFL, first to Atlanta, then to Green Bay, where he restored the Packers to greatness and inspired a fan base as passionate as any in the game.

Sweetness: The Enigmatic Life of Walter Payton

At five feet ten inches tall, running back Walter Payton was not the largest player in the NFL, but he developed a larger-than-life reputation for his strength, speed, and grit. Nicknamed “Sweetness” during his college football days, he became the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing and all-purpose yards, capturing the hearts of fans in his adopted Chicago.

Belichick and Brady: Two Men, the Patriots, and How They Revolutionized Football

Featuring interviews from Patriots players and coaches, Holley presents a fascinating portrait of the partnership between Tom Brady, the Patriots' star quarterback, and Bill Belichick, the team's prolific coach. Chock-full of behind-the-scenes anecdotes and information exploring how they have strategized and weathered controversies, all culminating in four Super Bowl rings, this is required listening for any Patriots fan and students of the game of football.

Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s

Best-selling sportswriter Jeff Pearlman draws from almost 300 interviews to take the first full measure of the Lakers’ epic Showtime era. A dazzling account of one of America’s greatest sports sagas, Showtime is packed with indelible characters, vicious rivalries, and jaw-dropping, behind-the-scenes stories of the players’ decadent Hollywood lifestyles. From the Showtime era’s remarkable rise to its tragic end - marked by Magic Johnson’s 1991 announcement that he had contracted HIV - Showtime is a gripping narrative of sports, celebrity, and 1980s-style excess.

QB: My Life Behind the Spiral

In the most candid and compelling sports memoir since Andre Agassi's riveting bestseller Open, former San Francisco 49er, Super Bowl champion, NFL MVP, and Hall of Famer Steve Young gives listeners an unprecedented and stunning inside look at what it takes to become a super-elite professional quarterback.

Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN

ESPN began as an outrageous gamble with a lineup that included Australian Rules Football, rodeo, and a rinky-dinky clip show called Sports Center. Today the empire stretches far beyond television into radio, magazines, mobile phones, restaurants, video games and more, while ESPN's personalities have become global superstars to rival the sports icons they cover.

Parcells: A Football Life

Bill Parcells may be the most iconic football coach of our time. During his decades-long tenure as an NFL coach, he turned failing franchises into contenders. He led the ailing New York Giants to two Super Bowl victories, turned the New England Patriots into an NFL powerhouse, reinvigorated the New York Jets, brought the Dallas Cowboys back to life, and was most recently enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

NFL Confidential: True Confessions from the Gutter of Football

A current pro player takes fans on a pseudonymous trip through one of the most infamous years of football - the very long, sometimes funny, often controversial 2013-2014 season - sharing raucous, behind-the-scenes, on-the-field, and in-the-locker-room truth about life in the National Football League.

House of Nails: A Memoir of Life on the Edge

Eclipsing the traditional sports memoir, House of Nails, by former world champion, multimillionaire entrepreneur, and imprisoned felon Lenny Dykstra, spins a tragicomic tale of Shakespearean proportions - a relentlessly entertaining American epic that careens between the heights and the abyss. Nicknamed "Nails" for his hustle and grit, Lenny approached the game of baseball - and life - with mythic intensity.

The System: The Glory and Scandal of Big-Time College Football

College football has never been more popular - or more chaotic. Millions fill 100,000-seat stadiums every Saturday; tens of millions more watch on television every weekend. The 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama had a viewership of 26.4 million people, second only to the Super Bowl. Billions of dollars from television deals now flow into the game; the average budget for a top-ten team is $80 million; top coaches make more than $3 million a year; the highest paid, more than $5 million.

You Can't Make This Up: Miracles, Memories, and the Perfect Marriage of Sports and Television

In this highly entertaining and insightful memoir, one of television’s most respected broadcasters interweaves the story of his life and career with lively firsthand tales of some of the most thrilling events and fascinating figures in modern sports.

Lucky Bastard: My Life, My Dad, and the Things I'm Not Allowed to Say on TV

Sports fans see Joe Buck everywhere: broadcasting one of the biggest games in the NFL every week, calling the World Series every year, announcing the Super Bowl every three years. They know his father, Jack Buck, is a broadcasting legend and that he was beloved in his adopted hometown of St. Louis. Yet they have no idea who Joe really is. Or how he got here. In Lucky Bastard, Joe takes the listener into the broadcast booth and into his childhood home. Hilarious and occasionally heartbreaking, this is a book that any sports fan will love.

brianrainstorm says:"I thought you were the guy in Midnight Cowboy..."

Dream Team: How Michael, Magic, Larry, Charles, and the Greatest Team of All Time Changed the Game of Basketball Forever

In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic men's basketball team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. As a senior staff writer for Sports Illustrated, McCallum enjoyed a courtside seat for the most exciting basketball spectacle on earth, covering the Dream Team from its inception to the gold medal ceremony in Barcelona.

99: Stories of the Game

From minor-hockey phenomenon to Hall of Fame sensation, Wayne Gretzky rewrote the record books, his accomplishments becoming the stuff of legend. Dubbed "The Great One", he is considered by many to be the greatest hockey player who ever lived. No one has seen more of the game than he has - but he has never discussed in depth just what it was he saw.

Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency

In 1975, five young employees of a sclerotic William Morris agency left to start their own strikingly innovative talent agency. In the years to come, Creative Artists Agency would vault from its origins in a tiny office on the last block of Beverly Hills to become the largest and most imperial, groundbreaking, and star-studded agency Hollywood has ever seen - a company whose tentacles now spread throughout the world of movies, music, television, technology, advertising, sports, and investment banking far more than previously imagined.

Playing Through the Whistle: Steel, Football, and an American Town

Aliquippa, Pennsylvania is famous for two things: the Jones and Laughlin Steel mill, an industrial behemoth that helped win World War II; and football, with a high school team that has produced numerous NFL stars, including Mike Ditka and Darrelle Revis. But the mill, once the fourth largest producer in America, closed for good in 2000. What happens to a town when a dream dies? Does it just disappear?

Saban: The Making of a Coach

As the head coach of the University of Alabama's football team, Nick Saban is perhaps the most influential - and controversial - man in the sport. Unpredictable in his professional loyalties, uncompromising in his vision, and unyielding in his pursuit of perfection, the highest-paid coach in college football has changed the face of the game. His program-building vision has delivered packed stadiums, rabid fans, legions of detractors, countless NFL draft picks, and a total of four championships.

Head Ball Coach: My Life in Football, Doing It Differently--and Winning

College football's most colorful, endearing, and successful pioneer, Steve Spurrier, shares his story of a life in football - from growing up in Tennessee to winning the Heisman Trophy to playing and coaching in the pros to leading the Florida Gators to six SEC Championships and a National Championship to elevating the South Carolina program to new heights - and coaching like nobody else.

Got to Give the People What They Want: True Stories and Flagrant Opinions from Center Court

Jalen Rose has never been quiet. Not as a kid growing up in Detroit in the '70s and '80s. Not as the brash, trash-talking leader of the legendary "Fab Five" at the University of Michigan. Not as the player under the stewardship of Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Isiah Thomas, and others throughout his 13-year NBA career. And certainly not as a commentator and analyst on ABC/ESPN and Grantland.

Michael Jordan: The Life

When most people think of Michael Jordan, they think of the beautiful shots, his body totally in sync with the ball, hitting nothing but net. He is responsible for incredible moments so ingrained in basketball history that they have their own names: The Shrug, The Shot, The Flu Game. But for all his greatness, there's also a dark side to Jordan: A ruthless competitor, a gambler. There's never been a biography that balanced these personas-until now.

Collision Low Crossers: A Year Inside the Turbulent World of NFL Football

We watch football every Sunday, but we don't really see it. By spending a year with the New York Jets, Nicholas Dawidoff explored the game in such an intimate way that he can now put you right inside the NFL. Collision Low Crossers is a story that is part Paper Lion and part Moneyball, part Friday Night Lights and part The Office.

Illegal Procedure: A Sports Agent Comes Clean on the Dirty Business of College Football

For 15 years, sports agent Josh Luchs made illegal deals with numerous college athletes, from top-tier, nationally recognized phenoms to late-round draft picks. Then, in October 2010, Luchs wrote a confessional article in Sports Illustrated, telling the truth about what he did and didn't do. Since then, he has taken on a new role: whistle-blowing, truth-telling reformer. In telling his own story, Luchs here pulls back the curtain on the real economy - and the broken system - of college football.

Ahead of the Curve: Inside the Baseball Revolution

Most people who resist logical thought in baseball preach "tradition" and "respecting the game". But many of baseball's traditions go back to the 19th century, when the pitcher's job was to provide the batter with a ball he could hit and fielders played without gloves. Instead of fearing change, Brian Kenny wants fans to think critically, reject outmoded groupthink, and embrace the changes that have come with the "sabermetric era".

Game of My Life: Dallas Cowboys: Memorable Stories of Cowboys Football

Game of My Life: Dallas Cowboys takes you inside the most memorable game of 24 players and of head Coach Jimmy Johnson that earned each of them a place in the history and lore of America’s Team. Each chapter provides colorful detail on the player’s favorite game and its significance to the history of one of the world’s most recognized franchises. Learn how these men joined the Cowboys fraternity.

Publisher's Summary

They were America's Team - the high-priced, high-glamour, high-flying Dallas Cowboys of the 1990s, who won three Super Bowls and made as many headlines off the field as on it. Led by Emmitt Smith, the charismatic Deion "Prime Time" Sanders, and Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Michael Irvin, the Cowboys rank among the greatest of all NFL dynasties.

In similar fashion to his New York Times best seller The Bad Guys Won!, award-winning writer Jeff Pearlman chronicles the outrageous antics and dazzling talent of a team fueled by ego, sex, drugs -and unrivaled greatness. Rising from the ashes of a 1 - 15 season in 1989 to capture three Super Bowl trophies in four years, the Dallas Cowboys were guided by a swashbuckling, skirt-chasing, power-hungry owner, Jerry Jones, and his two eccentric, hard-living coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer. Together the three built a juggernaut that America loved and loathed. But for a team that was so dominant on Sundays, the Cowboys were often a dysfunctional circus the rest of the week.

Irvin, nicknamed "The Playmaker," battled dual addictions to drugs and women. Charles Haley, the defensive colossus, presided over the team's infamous "White House," where the parties lasted late into the night and a steady stream of long-legged groupies came and went. And then there were Smith and Sanders, whose Texas-sized egos were eclipsed only by their record-breaking on-field performances.

With an unforgettable cast of characters and a narrative as hard-hitting and fast-paced as the team itself, Boys Will Be Boys immortalizes the most beloved - and despised - dynasty in NFL history.

What the Critics Say

"Terrific detail.... Pearlman has produced a narrative that is as entertaining as it is insightful." (Publishers Weekly)"A lurid yet riveting account of an undeniably charismatic, and often loathed, championship team." (Kirkus Reviews)

Well then get someone who likes football to read it. Maybe try getting someone who knows what a football looks like to narrate it.

Arthur Morey is horrible. Who is Troy Ackerman? Daryll Woodson? Steve Beewerline? Mark Ripe yen? Can the Cowboys really lead a game 13 and oh? It is borderline comical to hear Michael Irvin quoted by a guy who is more white then Woody Paige.

The story is good but it is almost unbearable to listen to this nitwit. This is akin to having Troy Aikman narrate a book on Albert Schweitzer. If you can stomach 14+ hours of mispronunciations and monotone drool, then this audio book is for you. You are truly better off just reading this one yourself.

Boys Will Be Boys was the finest sports book I've ever heard/read. The authors research and presentation were excellent. I am an avid football fan and I consider myself a quasi historian of the game. Yet, on numerous occasions I found myself listening to facts that I'd never heard before. The story itself was so hard to pull away from that I would have listened to it in one sitting if I had the time. It is so interesting that you don't have to like sports at all and you would still love this book. I actually think that people that don't follow the game would probably receive the most satisfaction because they wouldn't know the end result of the many great characters in this book. In this case, truth is more interesting than fiction.

One caveat though... The narrator was pitiful!!! He obviously had zero knowledge of the game of football nor of any of the Dallas Cowboys. The guy should have done SOME research into how to pronounce the characters names. It was very distracting because I knew the correct pronunciations. I found myself talking back to my IPod trying to correct the dude. Don't get me wrong... When he wasn't mispronouncing names his work was good. He has a good narrators voice, but he constantly jacked up names. In spite of that this was still a 5 star book. If you download it you will not regret it.

good book for fans of the 90s cowboys as well as haters. lots of dishy tales and also some interesting framing of the importance of balancing talent and discipline.

one major issue is the audio publisher did not even look into how to pronounce several names. if you are a football fan, you'll hear several mistakes, which took me out of it each time. other than that, the narrator is clear and delivers a good story.

I would have never made it through this book if I wasn't a die-hard Dallas Cowboys fan. There is some great material, primarily packed into the first and last five chapters, but the narrator is difficult to stay with, and I feel a very poor choice for the material. He sounds like a 70 year old white journalist that doesn't watch football. He mispronounces numerous players/ coaches names, at one point even referring to Troy Aikman as, "Aikerman." His reading of game recaps is less than thrilling and when he reads quotes from Michael Irvin, Nate Newton and other players, his disconnect from the players' culture he's reading about is comical (and not in a good way). All in all, I was able to stay with the book because of my interest in the Cowboys, but the narrator made that a difficult task.

Wow who could of guessed the dark secrets behind the Cowboys 90s dynasty. I have been a Dallas fan since the late sixties. I watched all the games and followed the team closely through the 3 superbowl runs and loved Troy, Michael, and Emmet. I new the news reports of some drug problems and thought it was just an occasional thing. Boy was I shocked at the truth behind the scenes. Jimmy Johnson was and still is a puke. Jerry Jones ego is bigger than the state of Texas. And whoa! Barry Switzer was a party animal from hell and a slobering idiot. This book was hard to turn off to the Cowboy fan. But It was good to find out that Troy Aikman was who I thought he was through it all.